The invention relates to a transponder-holding case as implant in animal breeding and keeping.
The application of transponder technology in breeding and keeping herds and flocks of animals for the food chain as a forgery-proof and lasting instrument of identification and verification is still in the pilot application phase. The topical problems of bovine spongiforme encephalopathy (BSE) and hormone administration, as well as the resulting controlling legislation are, however, going to ensure a world-wide application of this technique before long.
In correspondence with the transponder technology transponders are implanted in a part of the body of the animals where they cannot provoke any impairment of the well-being, the movements or the growth and where additionally the reading by means of a transponder-reading device is possible in a functionally reliable manner. Control via transponders offers a solution for herd and flock management, the observation and pursuit of owners, the case history and origin, with this technology replacing earmarks, tattoos and brand marks.
So far passive transponders have become known which are not equipped with an energy source of their own. The passive transponders are energized via a magnetic low-frequency field of a hand-held reading device, with the disadvantage that activation is possible only within a small range.
Meanwhile active transponders have been developed, too, which consist of a round ferrite core, 5 to 20 mm long, with a copper wire coil wound thereon and a board with an edge length of roughly 5 mm for mounting the transponder chip, as well as of a lithium power pack. Such active transponders permit the identification over distances longer than the range of passive transponders but they require a holding case, both for ensuring a perfect function and as a result of the materials involved, which case keeps any mechanical loads in the animal body away from the transponder, is easy to retrieve inside the animal body, and does not lead to inflammations of the surrounding tissue.
In initial field trials glass cases have been applied already which did not furnish satisfactory results, however, because they involve a high risk of glass break, of migrations inside the animal body, and of inflammatory processes in the surrounding tissue.